Photoshop to Mattebox

Mattebox features experimental Adobe® Photoshop® import functionality. You can use it to open photos saved as Photoshop documents, and import a stack of adjustment layers as a new filter.

Divide and Conquer

When you’re developing a filter, it’s sometimes preferable to use several Curves and/or Levels adjustments. The Adjustment Layers in Photoshop make it easy to divide and conquer.

For example, let’s create a faded film look. First create two Curves adjustment layers. On the top Curves layer, raise the black point in the RGB and Red channels.

On the bottom Curves layer, create a simple S-curve. Now you can adjust the contrast with the S-curve and the “faded” look in the other Curves layer independently. For example, you decide to increase or decrease the fading, you don’t need to move the points on the S-curve.

Importing to Mattebox

To get the Photoshop document into Mattebox, you can drop it into the Mattebox section in iTunes File Sharing, you can email it to yourself, or you can add it to your Dropbox. If you used iTunes, select the image in your Mattebox Roll—if you used another option, select the file and open it using Mattebox.

The photo should load with your new filter applied. You can now continue editing the filter.

Locked Red, Green, and Blue Curves

You can alter the L curve, but Red, Green, and Blue are locked upon import. You can unlock them, but it will break the association with the original Photoshop adjustment layers. If you leave them locked, your original layers will be preserved when and if you use your filter is exported back to Photoshop (see Mattebox to Photoshop).

Supported Features

Currently, Curves, Levels and Hue & Saturation adjustment layers are supported, with more coming soon. The only parameter used from Hue & Saturation is the main saturation adjustment. Most blend modes are supported, with the exception of the following: